Prologue: Born in Shadow

Black Vox, X785: Jellal

Traitor. Monster. Murderer.

Those words echoed in the mind of Jellal Fernandez. Clad only in ragged gray pants, shaking from hunger, body scorched from regular torment by his guards – his thoughts touched none of those degradations. Memory after memory marched through his mind, each striking with Etherion's force. It was an effort to make himself eat his meager rations.

Live, and struggle. That is my penance.

Jellal's hand reached out for the tin plate by his side, but it was clean. He slid it aside, deflating.

"Jellal," a guard called, tapping on his crystal cell with a staff. The former Wizard Saint looked up. It was Nadal, the amphibian guard who hated him the most. "Oh, Jellal," he sang, enormous mouth spread in a wide, razor-sharp grin. "There's rumors that you were possessed when you enslaved your closest friends and betrayed Titania. Fairy Tail's new guild master even put in a formal request that the Magic Council examine you for...evil Zeref residue, I suppose."

All Jellal could do in response was blink. What? Why would Fairy Tail do that without Erza? His head slumped; he was too weak to shake it. They'll never be without her. The real question is, why does that make Nadal happy? Jellal managed to look up. "Well. I guess your trial's going to be interesting, isn't it?"

"Nadal," his partner Serena whispered. The more timid guard glanced from the chamber entrance to Jellal, but said nothing more.

Nadal ignored him, resting his staff on his shoulder. "That could really embarrass the Council. It's a good thing they'd never do anything..." Somehow, the sadist's smile grew. "...drastic. Quiet. Permanent." Nadal turned, glancing over his shoulder. "Be seeing you, traitor."

No. Jellal tried to stand, but his body wouldn't obey. I have to live. It was Erza's last wish. He slumped against the crystal, too tired to find the space to lie down. Does it even matter? She's gone. Everyone who remembers me hates me. I've earned all of it and more. Maybe my death will bring them peace. I may not deserve that peace, but they do.

Nadal and Serena both screamed and collapsed. Jellal's eyes flickered up, then widened. Ultear, he thought, relieved. She survived. The relief vanished, replaced by a new, sick horror. Gods, no. She's still in my thrall. The former Councilor was wearing her mostly-white battle armor. The spheres she'd used to pummel Nadal returned to the sockets in her bracers. "That's for torturing an innocent man, you toadies."

"Ultear." Again, Jellal tried to rise, managing to get up to his knees. He braced himself against the cell's front wall, hands pressed against it. "I'm not who you think I am. I don't deserve your loyalty." Ultear flinched and turned to face him, and Jellal fell back, collapsing against the rear wall again.

She looked at him and trembled, jaw tight and eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Jellal..." she whispered, her fists clenched.

Something exploded behind Ultear, and a pink-haired girl not much taller than Wendy burst in through the cloud. "Ultear! There's a lot of guards headed this way!"

"You brought a child with you?" Jellal breathed. "Ultear, if you care about her at all, you need to take her and go."

"We won't be long, Meredy," Ultear insisted, ignoring him. "One volley of Maguilty Rays should suffice." She turned her attention back to Jellal, tears gone, her lips a flat, determined line. "Arc of Time: Decay!" Jellal's cell turned to dust in the blink of an eye. Before he could fall, Ultear reached out and caught him with telekinesis. "I won't let you die here, Jellal. I've caused you enough pain already."

"Ultear..." Jellal was too weak to struggle in his rescuer's psychic grip. "I'm the one who hurt you. Please, leave me and go."

Ultear pulled him to her side, her magic locking him in place over her shoulder. "Erza's alive," she insisted. Jellal gasped. "I know you can't sense her, but she's not dead. It's Time Magic." She looked over her shoulder at him, face still grim and implacable. "And you have a promise to keep. We both do."

"Mom!" Meredy blurted. Jellal's jaw went slack. "We're out of time!"

"Never," Ultear smirked, and for the first time Jellal truly recognized her. "Parallel Worlds." Her orb replicated itself dozens of times over, and all the copies flew in the direction of the billowing smoke. "Decay." A series of holes appeared in every wall between them and freedom. "Come on, Meredy. It's time you and Jellal had a proper introduction." Meredy nodded with a merry hum and ran ahead, a circle of energy blades orbiting the child.

"Ultear?" Jellal whispered. "Is she ours?"

Ultear shuddered again, bowing her head. "It hasn't been that long, that was only ever with Siegrain," she noted, "and even your Thought Projection isn't that powerful." She waved a hand over his eyes. "Sleep."

Everything went black.

Crocus Mountains, X785: Ultear

Ultear brushed the hair from Jellal's eyes. He'd lost nearly thirty pounds, his body was covered in magical burn marks, and he was suffering from extreme Magic Deficiency. Gods. Nothing can ever excuse what I did, but I'm beginning to think that overthrowing the Magic Council may not have been such a bad idea after all.

Meredy carefully approached them, peering at Jellal from behind Ultear. "Wow. He doesn't look scary at all. This is the dread cultist Jellal Fernandez?"

"No," Ultear sighed. "This is the kind, decent Jellal Fernandez that existed before I violated his mind and soul. Stand watch, please." Meredy sighed and trudged to where the cave turned, allowing her to watch the exit and Ultear. The time mage sighed as well, sat next to the sleeping man, and carefully poured a stolen potion into his mouth.

It took longer than she would have liked for him to sputter and awaken, but eventually he recovered enough to sit up. He blinked and looked around, eyes unfocused. "It's dark," he whispered.

"We're in a cave in the Crocus Mountains," Ultear explained. "I need to be close to the capitol, but we're the most wanted criminals in Ishgar." She frowned and glanced away. "Well, I am, at least. Meredy's underage, and you..." Jellal took a breath, but stopped when Ultear raised her hand. "Please. I need you to listen. I heard that you've remembered your past, but there's something you don't know." She took a deep breath. "You really were possessed. I know, because I'm the one who performed the ritual of possession. I wasn't your agent. You were my puppet." Jellal blinked again, but otherwise didn't react. "Everything you think you did, all those acts of cruelty and betrayal – they were my doing. Not yours."

Jellal's response was arguably the most reasonable one possible. "What?" he whispered, staring at Ultear with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

"I was already one of Grimoire Heart's most powerful wizards," she continued, looking away. Ultear tried to force her hands to stop trembling. It didn't work. "Using Master Hades' library and the power of the Devil's Heart, I performed a ritual that inverted your personality. Our magic turned you into someone completely different. The real Jellal Fernandez was trapped in a nightmare, while a cruel, vindictive, easily manipulated spirit controlled that body's actions."

His stare didn't change. In spite of her best efforts, Ultear began to squirm. "Why?" he breathed.

"You were a – distraction," she admitted. "While the Council panicked and chased the 'evil' Jellal Fernandez, Grimoire Heart gained access to keys that allowed us to reach Zeref." Excuses she'd promised herself she wouldn't use bubbled past her determination. "It was to achieve the Grand Magic World. I would travel back in time to before my life went wrong. None of the terrible things I did would have ever happened." Ultear found herself staring at her hands, clasped in a white-knuckled grip in her lap.

"Zeref was alive," Jellal said. The shock was fading, and his face was draining of all emotion. Ultear nodded. "The ritual, the one I tricked my friends into helping with for eight years. The one I was going to kill Erza for. Meaningless."

"Destroying Etherion protected our ship," she explained, her skin prickling with cold horror as she realized her explanation didn't help. "But, you're correct, the ritual would have had no magical effect. Merging your body with the lacrima only contained the explosion."

"So." Jellal looked into the distance, expression utterly blank. "I am not merely a monstrous, treacherous murderer. I am also an arrogant and incompetent pawn."

Ultear's eyes widened, and she looked up again. Jellal stared at the light streaming from the cave entrance with empty eyes. The time mage had to pay attention to hear him breathe. Her horror vanished, swallowed in frustration and anger. "Did you hear a word I said? None of it was you! For God's sake, you resisted. When Erza rejected us, I wanted you to kill her. You saved her when you sent her away. I tried to turn you into the same sort of monster the Cultists were. You lavished your friends with wealth and luxury, treated the former slaves with respect, you even spared the beasts once you tamed them. Every time I wanted you to do something cruel, I had to charge the spell myself."

"It was still me," Jellal replied. "I remember it all. I can still see the horrified faces of the Councilors, feel Erza's blood on my knuckles, hear Simon's scream as he fell."

Of all the–! Ultear grabbed his shoulders. "You were a child! You were an eleven year old boy who'd been a slave half your life. We took you best friend – even then, something more – and we tortured and mutilated her. When you rescued her, we tortured you for hours, then overwhelmed you with Mental Magic that could dominate entire cities. Helpless, alone, drowning in pain and fury, you could have been a God of Ishgar and the Devil's Heart would still have turned you." Jellal's expression never changed.

Ultear let him go and clutched her forehead in one hand. What did you expect? His whole life has been one endless, horrific emotional trauma. I'll never be able to make this right. She snorted and grimaced. I have to try. For Mom. For Gray. For Jellal himself. There's no one I've hurt more, not even Meredy. She returned her attention to the broken wizard. "I can't undo what's been done. My Arc of Time will never be that powerful now. All I can do now is give you the life Erza wanted you to have. The second chance you deserve." Ultear began to tremble again. "Let me try. Please."

That got Jellal's attention. He turned and peered into her eyes, leaning in just a fraction. "You're trying to atone," he whispered. Ultear nodded calmly, forcing herself not to react in desperation. "Answer one question. I understand why you've changed. You were cruel because you thought it didn't matter. That's the only reason anyone's ever cruel." Ultear blinked. My God. All that pain, and the brave boy I ruined is back after five minutes, she thought. "Now that you know it matters, you want to be kind. There's only one thing I don't understand." He shifted, turning towards her. "Why me? If my heart truly wasn't weak, why did you turn me?"

It felt like she'd been stabbed. No. Having stabbed myself once, this is worse. Ultear took a deep breath and gathered her ragged courage. "I was jealous," she explained. "When I was a prisoner, tortured and experimented on, I broke like glass. It only took them months to turn me into a monster. What they did to you was as bad as what happened to me, but you survived. You endured. And you carried six other people while you did it." Jellal gasped. Ultear's courage wavered, and she looked away. "I wanted to believe that you weren't so special. I needed to believe that you weren't stronger than I was. Devil Heart Possession didn't actually prove any of that, but I could pretend it did. So I took you from Erza and made you mine."

Jellal's hand twitched. "Please don't kill me," Ultear begged. "You can do anything else you want. I will obey you absolutely if that's your wish. You can punish me in any way you see fit. Just, please...Meredy needs me."

"Meredy," Jellal muttered. He struggled to stand, and Ultear rushed to help him to his feet. "Can you make crutches for me?" Jellal asked. Ultear nodded and complied, using Ice-Make to help him walk. "Thank you. Please wait here. I want to talk to her before I decide anything."

"Don't hurt her," Ultear blurted, half-demanding, half-pleading. Jellal smiled at her, then hobbled to the girl's side. Ultear turned away and sat, forcing herself not to listen.

That worked for nearly ten minutes. Damn it, she sighed, giving in to her curiosity and sending a tiny orb to listen in on them. To my victims, she reminded herself. "And you forgave her all that?" Jellal asked.

"Now that you know what Brain did to her, are you really surprised?" Meredy replied. Her voice is a little shaky, Ultear noted. Odd. Jellal's no threat to us yet. Her adopted daughter took a deep breath and plunged on. "I know she's done awful things. She thinks they're unforgivable, but I don't."

"Inexcusable," Jellal replied, looking out at the mountain range. Meredy huffed and crossed her arms. He turned and smiled at her. "It's not the same thing. There is no excuse for my actions, any more than there is for hers. That is not the same as unforgivable. Nothing is unforgivable. Nothing should ever be unforgivable. What's important is that she recognizes that there is no excuse for what she's done, and is trying to move forward." His smile faded and vanished, and he leaned more heavily on the ice crutches. "Erza would forgive her," he whispered.

"You think so?" Meredy asked, eyes and voice filled with hope.

Jellal nodded. "You trust her," he said. It wasn't a question. Meredy nodded anyway. "I've regained some energy," he continued, voice growing stronger. "I think I can use Meteor. If we're going to work together, I'll need time to recover. Once I'm strong enough to carry my weight...hm." His head tilted a fraction. "Live, and struggle."

Meredy pouted at him. "Isn't that what we're doing?"

"No," Jellal replied, and even on crutches made of ice, when he straightened, Ultear could see the man he might become if he could heal. "This is just running. The struggle is to give our lives meaning. Punishment is only a lesson – necessary, but insufficient. Atonement is what makes forgiveness worthwhile." He nodded at the distant sky. "Very well. I will place my faith in Ultear's 'second chance' for now. Once I've recovered, we can decide what to do next."

Ultear released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Thank you, she prayed, not knowing who she thanked.

Crocus Mountains, X785: Meredy

"I can't believe it's only been a week," Meredy breathed. Jellal hovered in place, Meteor blazing around his near-perfect body. He was wearing a skintight t-shirt, loose pants, and short boots. He looks like he could take on the whole Magic Council.

Ultear chuckled. "He made Wizard Saint with a Thought Projection, Meredy. All he needed for his recovery were food, space, and ethernano." She shook her head. "He's probably the equal of a God of Ishgar. We're lucky Hades was so indulgent. He wanted to bring Jellal into the Kin. I insisted on keeping him to myself. He decided it wouldn't matter once the Grand Magic World was a reality."

Meredy frowned. "Is that really lucky? Maybe he could've, I dunno, helped."

"If he'd been on our side during the Tenrou Island assault," Ultear replied, smile vanishing, "there's no telling how much worse it could have turned out." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He's here, good, and as sane as we could possibly hope for. Now we move forward." She crossed her arms. "I just wish he'd tell us what he has in mind."

"Maybe he's still figuring it out himself," Meredy pointed out. "I mean, Jellal's been super-nice, considering, but it's pretty obvious he's still kinda lost." She leaned against a nearby stalagmite and watched the former Wizard Saint practice. "Besides, isn't he basically eleven?"

"No. He remembers," Ultear whispered. "One of the things that made him such a potent mage is his ability to pick up almost anything on his first or second try. Now that he's not mentally traumatized by merging with the Tower and the Possession purge, his memory is very nearly perfect." She rubbed her chin. Trying not to worry, huh, Mom? Meredy realized. "It's why he's such an emotional mess, but it also means he's got all the power and skill of the Jellal who worked with me for all those years."

Meredy looked from Ultear to Jellal. Okay, I give up, she decided with a shrug. "So what's he doing now?"

"Exercising," Ultear chuckled. "He used to say, 'I'm a Wizard-Saint-Magic-Councilor-Cult-leader, I don't have time for sit-ups.' Even...under my influence, Jellal was a charming partner." She focused on the young man, watching him meditate. "Clever, too. The sit-up line was a joke. He's scuplting his entire body at once – every muscle worked to near-perfection. Really, Dragneel only beat him because my control spell weakened the longer I tried to make him..." she shook her head. "Jellal knows so many different kinds of magic. If the possessed version hadn't broken down, any number of circles or seals would have bought him the time to rally."

Meredy looked into the distance. "I don't know. Natsu might seem stupid, but he beat Master Hades. Besides, he told Jellal to free himself. Maybe he worked out the possession thing?"

Ultear exhaled. "I hope so, honestly. We're probably going to need their help when they finally come back from whatever happened on Tenrou." She shook her head. "For all Jellal's power and intellect, he won't be enough, not alone." Ultear flinched and looked away. Meredy resisted hugging her. Mom's still sensitive to that, she thought. "And even if he forgives me, we will be alone. Two former Kin of Purgatory, and the most hunted man in the world? We're not going to have many allies. Perhaps none at all."

"Atonement isn't meant to be easy." Ultear and Meredy both turned to face Jellal, who was floating to the ground. Meteor faded away as he landed. "We've all suffered. Now we're among the most powerful mages in the world." He glanced at Ultear. "I wasn't special, Ultear." Mom gasped, Meredy turning from her to Jellal and back. "I had friends. I wasn't alone. You were." He waved at the cavern entrance. "Out there, too many wizards think they're alone. Too many more are willing to lash out in pain or greed."

"You have an idea," Ultear said, raising an eyebrow.

"We can never rejoin society," Jellal replied, shrugging. "Even had we not committed our many crimes, we were all taken from civilization very young and raised to be the barbarians they fear." For the first time since Meredy'd met him, Jellal's eyes brightened. "I propose we use that to our advantage."

"'Advantage?' How?" Meredy blurted.

"The Interguild Dispute Interdiction Treaty - the guild war ban – only allows Legal Guilds to combat Dark Guilds if they inform the Magic Council first. This puts them at a tremendous disadvantage. Dark Guilds always know when a Legal Guild goes after them, but the reverse it not true." He straightened, and Meredy could feel a...strength, radiating from him. "As an...Independent Guild, we suffer from no such limitation."

"We can fight them on even footing," Ultear whispered. Was that hope? Meredy wondered, a weight seeming to vanish from her adoptive mother's shoulders. "No, better – we have inside knowledge on almost every Dark Guild in Ishgar."

"Take our sins and our magic, and use them to combat the evil we once were," Jellal agreed.

Ultear frowned. "My sins. Not yours."

Jellal turned to Ultear and put his hands on her shoulders. His eyes locked onto hers, his lips a fierce, grim line. "I forgive you, Ultear." Meredy's hands went to her mouth, and Mom's eyes went wide, tears starting to form. "Even if all of it was you, I have life and hope, thanks to you and Meredy." Ultear gasped, grabbed his shirt, and sobbed into his shoulder. Jellal smiled and held her. "You said it yourself. None of us can change the past. All we have now is each other, and I want us to move forward together." He took a deep breath. Ultear stopped crying in an instant, pushing him back to meet his gaze with a glare.

"Crime Sorciere," Meredy blurted. Please, don't argue again, she thought while the two older mages looked at her. We're all any of us has now. She took a deep breath. "We need a name. It means 'Witch's Sin,' kinda, and it sounds intimidating."

Jellal's smile made the young mage feel warm inside. "That works." He held out his hand, palm down. "As of today, we are Crime Sorciere." Meredy looked at the outstretched hand in confusion. What's he doing?

Ultear's smile was more wry, but still sincere. "Very well. Crime Sorciere it is." She placed her hand on Jellal's.

Oh! Meredy leaped to join them, dropping her hand on theirs. "Crime Sorciere, go!" she cheered. Jellal and Ultear both chuckled, but Meredy didn't care. We're not just survivors any more, she decided. We're a team. A Guild. And we're going to be amazing.